Business Wire International

October 9, 1985

(BU) FORD MOTOR CO. AND FIAT, Italy`s largest automaker, announced Tuesday in Turin, Italy that talks had broken off on combining the giant automakers` European operations. The two companies had been negotiating for about a year over a variety of possible combinations, from a joint company formed by Ford of Europe Inc. and Fiat to the joint production of automotive componentry. Ford said in the United States that the two companies would ``continue the possibility of other business arrangements,`` including the joint production of parts.

NATIONAL

(BU) CHRYSLER CORP. will buy a BankAmerica Corp. subsidiary, FinanceAmerica, for $405 million in a transaction that will give the automaker a greater stake in direct consumer lending, the companies announced Tuesday. The agreement will make Chrysler Financial Corp., the automaker`s credit subsidiary, a more independent company with potential for significant growth and profitability, Chrysler Chairman Lee Iacocca said. Chrysler Financial this year formed a joint venture with General Electric Credit Corp. and bought E.F. Hutton Credit Corp., renaming it Chrysler Capital Corp. FinanceAmerica consists of two BankAmerica subsidiaries: FinanceAmerica Corp. and BA Financial Services Corp.

(BU) BATH IRON WORKS shipbuilders returned to work Tuesday in Maine after a strike of more than three months, as management put up welcome-back signs and union leaders sought to put the best face on wage concessions accepted by the rank and file. The new contract runs through August 1988. The firm does construction and repairs for the Navy.

(BU) PEOPLE EXPRESS, the discount airline pioneer, has outbid Texas Air Corp. for Frontier Airlines, Frontier said Tuesday, escalating a see-saw battle for control. People has a ``binding agreement`` to pay $24 a share for the Denver- based carrier, a spokeswoman for Frontier Holdings Inc. said. Directors of Frontier Holdings, the financially strapped airline`s parent, announced the agreement in a brief statement issued a few hours after Texas Air announced it was upping its bid from $20 a share to $22 for the 12.5 million shares. Texas air had no immediate comment.

(BU) ELEVEN BANKS have petitioned federal bankruptcy court in Pittsburgh to terminate Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel Corp.`s pension plan. The move occurred Monday as representatives of the striking United Steelworkers union and Wheeling-Pittsburgh were negotiating in an effort to end a 2 1/2-month walkout. The USW presented the company with a counter offer to its proposal made last Thursday. Paul Rusen, USW chief negotiator, said the bank`s action is a threat to a settlement. A company negotiator said the company ``wishes it hadn`t happened.`` The company last April filed for protection against its creditors under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code.

FLORIDA

(BU) BIOGENIX INC. of Pompano Beach said Tuesday that it has begun human clinical trials of its rhematoid arthritis drug Pepteron. Biogenix is involved in microcomputer and microbiologic technologies for the medical industry.

(BU) INTERNATIONAL CONTROLS CORP.`S new president and an associated investment group have increased their ownership to 21.95 percent of the common shares outstanding. Arthur M. Goldberg, controlling partner in Arveron Investments Ltd. in New Jersey, led an investment group including Bear, Stearns & Co. in New York in an unsuccessful attempt to take over the Boca Raton aerospace equipment manufacturer in May; Goldberg was named ICC`s president in August. He now indirectly owns 441,840, or 13.7 percent, of the voting shares. In a recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the group said it holds a total of 736,400 common shares in ICC bought for $25-$26 a share. The additional shares were bought with a $1.9 million loan from an undisclosed commercial bank. The group also has an option to buy another 350,000 shares by Nov. 19, which would raise its stake in ICC to 29.3 percent.

(BU) SOLITRON DEVICES, a Riviera Beach electronics company, declined comment on reports that it may sell certain of its divisions. Philip Leigh, an analyst who follows the company for Williams Securities Group in Tampa, said he doesn`t believe the Solitron has a firm offer yet but that if Solitron does sell, it would be at a price substantially higher than what the divisions are now producing. Solitron, which has had troubles from litigation, has been trying to expand through international contracts.

(BU) FIRST BANKERS CORP. OF FLORIDA, headquartered in Pompano Beach, said it made a profit of about $2.95 million, or 63 cents a share, in the third quarter ended Sept. 30, compared with about $2.48 million, or 53 cents a share, in the same period a year ago. The 1984 earnings-per-share figure has been restated to reflect a 25 percent common stock dividend last July 1.

(BU) SUNTRUST BANKS INC., which completed its first full quarter of operation Sept. 30, said Tuesday that net income for the third quarter ended Sept. 30 was $45.4 million, or 91 cents a share, compared with $37.6 million, or 75 cents a share, the same period last year. On July 1, Sun Banks Inc. of Orlando and Trust Co. of Georgia in Atlanta merged to form SunTrust Banks Inc. The 1984 earnings are reported as if the two companies had been one.

(BU) FLORIDA NATIONAL BANKS OF FLORIDA INC., headquartered in Jacksonville, Tuesday said it made a profit of $12.7 million, a 16 percent increase over 1984 third quarter earnings of $10.9 million. Primary and fully diluted earnings per share for the third quarter of 1985 were $1 and 93 cents, respectively, compared with 86 cents and 85 cents for the same period last year.